“The music industry is broken,” says Oli Wilson, founder of Beyond The Music. But he hopes the event can play a part in helping to fix it.
From rapper Aitch to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, independent entrepreneurs to label executives, hundreds of music artists, experts and politicians came together in Manchesterthis week to discuss the biggest issues affecting the industry – from AI and the economics of streaming, to struggling grassroots artists and venues, and misogyny behind the scenes.
Now in its second year, Beyond The Music is a conference by day, city festival by night – set up as a co-operative as a place to address the “unprecedented and urgent challenges” facing the industry, but also to showcase up-and-coming talent and support the smaller venues in a city famous for its musical heritage.
Wilson, the founder, says the industry is struggling “across the board” – from the economic model that means “all the money’s staying at the top” in both recorded and live music, to the “imminent existential threat” of artificial intelligence (AI).
All of this feeds into a “mental health crisis”, he told Sky News. “It’s unregulated. There’s no HR department in the music industry. If you’re on tour with a band or if you’re working in a venue and you have mental health issues or perhaps you have issues with other work colleagues around you, who do you go to?”
Wilson, son of Tony Wilson, the man behind Manchester’s famous Factory Records and the Hacienda nightclub, says the landscape for new artists is tougher than ever.
“There’s 140,000 new pieces of music being released every single day… coupled with the fact that it’s harder and harder for record labels to take the risks and invest in new artists and careers like they used to. It’s really difficult for grassroot musicians at the moment – and grassroots venues.
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“The government are taking action to get a levy on arenas to put back into the grassroots. My belief is that it shouldn’t just be in the live context, it needs to be cross-sector – so record labels and publishing companies also should be putting into the grassroots pipeline.”
In the wake of the previous women and equalities committee’s misogyny in music report, released at the beginning of the year, campaigners also discussed the issues women have faced historically – and still face today.
Jen Smith, the chief executive of the newly formed Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA), says the organisation will go some way to bridging the HR gap as described by Wilson.
“There’s a persistent problem with behaviours, there’s a gap in provision for dealing with those behaviours and preventing those behaviours, and CIISA seeks to address that,” she says.
The authority is not an HR body, she adds, but will be the place to call on for confidential anonymous advice and to report any concerning behaviour. “And in serious, the most complex cases, CIISA would investigate. Because we’re a 70% freelance community across the creative industries, you often have these gaps in jurisdiction, if you like, about who is the responsible body.”
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Zelda Perkins, who has campaigned against the use of non-disclosure agreements to prevent people speaking out about abuse in the creative industries, also spoke at the event.
“It’s cultural and it’s systemic,” she says. “But I do think that if legislation is there to protect people and I think if the legal sector also takes responsibility for its role in protecting powerful people to basically do whatever they want, that would make an enormous difference quite quickly.”
Annabella Coldrick, chief executive of the Music Managers Forum, says it can be a lonely industry for artists and managers, as they are essentially “individual businesses”.
When it comes to making money from streaming and touring, she points out that streaming has “brought the recorded music business back into growth” from piracy taking hold, and that there is money to be made – “but it is very much at the top end”, making it harder for smaller artists and those working with them.
“I’m not saying everything is awful – it’s not, but it’s a hard game,” she says. “It’s a long game and it often doesn’t make money for a really [long time]. So people do it because they love it – and sometimes they get to the stage where they’ve been doing it for long enough that they’ve finally convinced enough people that there is an audience there.”
Despite the serious issues, there is plenty to celebrate, says Wilson.
“It’s my belief – and this is the great thing about doing it in Manchester – that we can create localised markets that will support artistic careers. I think it is possible to create economies in an area like Greater Manchester, or across the North, which would sustain artists’ careers.”
There’s more music than there ever has been in Manchester and across the UK, he says. “We’ve had over 3,000 submissions to play festival this year. The quality of music is really high and it’s across every genre of music, which is brilliant.”
He hopes getting “key players” together will help bring about new ideas and new ways of working. “We’re here to make change.”
The voice actor behind Milhouse Van Houten – Bart Simpson’s very uncool friend – is stepping away after 35 years on the show.
Pamela Hayden, who also voiced Jimbo Jones, Rod Flanders, Janey and Malibu Stacy, will sign off from The Simpsons on 24 November in a Treehouse of Horror episode.
“It’s been an honour and a joy to have worked on such a funny, witty, and groundbreaking show,” the 70-year-old said in a statement.
Show creator Matt Groening said: “Pamela gave us tons of laughs with Milhouse, the hapless kid with the biggest nose in Springfield.
“She made Milhouse hilarious and real, and we will miss her.”
Tulisa Contostavlos has opened up about the moment she says her life “fell apart” after being “set up by a British newspaper” and charged with supplying drugs.
The charges against the singer were later dismissed after prosecution witness “fake sheikh” journalist Mazher Mahmood was found to have tampered with evidence during her 2014 trial.
“2013 was the year I was set up by a British newspaper, for concern in the selling of class A drugs,” she told fellow campmate Oti Mabuse.
“The guy’s name was Mahmood and basically, I was approached by a big movie company and they sent me a tweet or a DM from their official account to audition me for a movie role… I’d dabbled in acting, so this opportunity for me was huge.”
Contostavlos, 36, said the role was offering £3.5m and she was flown out for meetings with producers in Las Vegas but told former Strictly Come Dancing star Mabuse “it was a lie”.
She claimed the team behind the movie encouraged her to take on a real-life role of a “bad girl from London who was constantly up to naughtiness, rolling with gangs, up to all kinds of naughty stuff”.
Contostavlos said “they had me dangling on the end of a string”, claiming every time she met with the team they would tell her “we need some drugs”.
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“After months and months, eventually they got a number and it was of someone that wasn’t even a drug dealer, it was an aspiring movie producer and I wanted to make a hook up as well for that person, but I didn’t know anyone that could do that,” she said.
“The long story short is they ended up ordering £800 worth of cocaine from the number that I had given them.
“Then before I knew it, I was being arrested in the concern of the selling of Class A drugs and I was facing four years in prison.”
Contostavlos revealed she lost “all my endorsements” over the incident and “my life fell apart”, she said.
“When it came to the trial, I’d had a conversation with one of their drivers, I was being recorded but I didn’t know, I was saying how anti-drugs I am, so they were very aware of my feelings towards drugs.”
Contostavlos said the driver initially gave a statement confirming she was anti-drugs, however she claimed that as the trial loomed the journalist forced him to change his statement.
In 2016, Mahmood was jailed for 15 months after being found guilty of conspiring to pervert the course of justice relating to his actions in Tulisa Contostavlos’s court case.
Friends and family of Liam Payne, including his One Direction bandmates, have gathered to say goodbye at his funeral.
Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik were among the family and friends attending the private ceremony.
Simon Cowell, who put the band together on The X Factor, Payne‘s girlfriend Kate Cassidy, and former partner Cheryl were also there.
The 31-year-old died after he fell from a third-floor balcony at the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 16 October.
Fans from around the world have held their own vigils over the past few weeks, and tributes have been left today in his hometown, Wolverhampton.
Payne’s dark blue coffin, topped with white roses, arrived for the service on a horse-drawn carriage, bearing flowers reading “son” and “daddy” – for his son, Bear, with Cheryl.
Her Girls Aloud bandmates Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh were also among those at the service, along with TV and radio presenters including James Corden, Marvin and Rochelle Humes, Scott Mills, and Adrian Chiles, and former professional footballer Robbie Keane.
US influencer Cassidy, who returned home from Argentina two days before his death, arrived with Damian Hurley, son of Elizabeth Hurley.
As Payne’s mother and father, Geoff and Karen, arrived at the church in the Home Counties, standing next to the carriage, silence fell among mourners outside.
A few locals and fans also gathered nearby, but in the main largely stayed away from the private ceremony.
Payne rose to worldwide fame alongside Styles, Tomlinson, Malik and Horan on The X Factor in 2010, when they were put together to form One Direction. They went on to become one of the most successful UK pop groups of all time.
After the band announced their hiatus, the singer launched his solo career, releasing his debut album LP1 in December 2019.
Prosecutors in Argentina have launched an investigation into Payne’s death and announced earlier this month that three people had been charged in connection with the incident.
One Direction tributes
Payne’s One Direction bandmates all publicly paid tribute following his death.
“His greatest joy was making other people happy and it was an honour to be alongside him as he did it,” said Styles in his statement. “Liam lived wide open, with his heart on his sleeve, he had an energy for life that was infectious.
“He was warm, supportive and incredibly loving. The years we spent together will forever remain among the most cherished years of my life. I will miss him always, my lovely friend.”
Tomlinson said he had “lost a brother” and offered to be an uncle to Payne’s son, Bear, if he “ever needs me”.
Horan, who had been touring in South America and saw Payne at his show in the weeks before his death, said: “I feel so fortunate that I got to see him recently. I sadly didn’t know that after saying goodbye and hugging him that evening, I would be saying goodbye forever. It’s heartbreaking.”
Malik said Payne had supported him “through some of the most difficult times” of his life, and said he always had a “positive outlook and reassuring smile”.
Cowell also paid tribute, saying he was “devastated” and “heartbroken”.
He continued: “I wanted to let you know what I would always say to the thousands of people who would always ask me. What is Liam like? And I would tell them you were kind, funny, sweet, thoughtful, talented, humble, focused. And how much you loved music. And how much love you genuinely had for the fans.”